Dingley aiming to continue fine year with Ffrench in contention

DIVERS Oliver Dingley and Jack Ffrench will get their European Championships underway in Edinburgh today as both take to the boards for the 1m Springboard Preliminaries. Twenty three nations will compete in 13 diving events at the Royal Commonwealth Pool over the next six days. The 1m Springboard will have 27 competitors including Rio 2016 3m silver medallist Jack Laugher of Britain. Rio 2016 Olympian Dingley has every right to be confident going into today’s event. The 25-year-old has had a great year so far, finishing seventh at the FINA World Cup in June and securing a place on the exclusive 2019 FINA Diving World Series (3m), reserved for the top eight divers in the world. In the 1m event Dingley set an Irish Record of 4:02.50 at the Senet Cup in February. Ffrench will be competing in his third European Championships and has had a good run in a number of national events so far this year with a season best 299 points at the British Championships in January. ‘Men’s springboard diving in Europe is certainly a big deal, Russia, Germany and Great Britain have some of the best springboarders in the world, so it is going to be a tough day for sure,’ National Head Coach Damian Ball said. ‘The lads are in good spirits, training well and are most certainly up for the fight,’ he continued. ‘All we can do now is focus on our own game and see who comes out on top at the end.’ In Glasgow yesteday, Jordan Sloan touched in 1:50.76 to finish 10th in his 200m Freestyle heat while Calum Bain made his Championship debut in the 50m Butterfly clocking 24.93, also for 10th. Darragh Greene and Alex Murphy return to the pool for the 50m Breaststroke heats today while Niamh Kilgallen makes her senior international debut for Ireland in the 200m Individual Medley.